Mortal Arrangement
by Llampaca Eating Guppy
Summary: Jack ran from the horror story that was his life only to end up in a different one. But living in a haunted laboratory was still the lesser of two evils. Ghost AU because I can


**Mortal Arrangement**

 **Warnings: Ghosts, spooky mirrors, death mentions cuz like one of them's dead, heavily mentioned/maybe shown abuse, potential body horror/gore (but it'll be pretty softcore)**

…

Jack staggered through the door, soaked to the bone. He clenched his teeth to keep them from chattering, but there was no way for him to stop the way he uncontrollably shivered. It was dark, dirty, and not nearly as stocked up on supplies as he had planned, but there wasn't anything he could do about that now. He would just have to make due.

He turned on his flashlight and limped through what he assumed used to be a lobby and turned right at the hallway in the back, through a pair of swinging doors, and then through a second doorway into the stairs. The old HD Academy lab seemed to only have one floor from the outside, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. It just went down instead of up- which, when he had researched it, was illegal. He didn't know how they had even managed to build this place, let alone run it for years before getting busted for illegal procedures. He didn't know exactly what kind; he hadn't looked into it in much detail. When he had tried, he had to filter through tall tales and stories of hauntings that threatened to just make him paranoid, and that was one extra thing on his mind that he didn't need.

His stuff was in the stairwell: a thick blanket, towel, flashlight, camping lamp, meager collection of canned food, and as many batteries and bottles of water he had been able to get. He turned the lantern on and dumped his backpack into the pile, which carried a few spare clothes and miscellaneous odds and ends that he was less afraid of taking from the house now that he didn't plan to go back. It was all soaked from the long walk in the downpour. So much for changing into something dry.

He gingerly stripped down to his underwear and set the clothes on top of the pile to dry them. He should have thought to bring something to hang them over. Maybe later he could find something, but for now he was more worried about warming up. He dried off with the towel before wrapping it around his head to keep his wet hair from giving him trouble and huddled in his blanket.

It worked well enough. Finally warm and comparatively safe, his exhaustion finally caught up to him and he nodded off.

…

Something was going on outside.

Jack's eyes snapped open in an instant, and he bolted upright with a small gasp. There couldn't have been people here. That didn't make any sense. But he could hear muffled voices, and there was light coming from under the door.

The lights suddenly turned on in the staircase, illuminating his dwelling in all its unsanitary glory. He didn't have time to dwell on that, though, before the door opened.

A tall, angular man came through first. He wore an expensive-looking suit and triangular glasses, and his black hair was slicked back. He stepped inside, his feet going straight through Jack's supplies that were in his path. "Honestly, there's no need to be so dramatic."

"But, Doctor-" a boy about his age followed him in. He was short and sickly pale, with light blue hair that was spiked up in the back in a way that was frankly awful. But he didn't get to say anything else before he stopped at the backpack at his feet, brow creasing. Slowly, his eyes trailed to the rest of his supplies, before finally seeing Jack.

They stared at each other a moment. "Who are you?" the boy asked, looking confused.

And then all the lights went out, plunging Jack into pitch black darkness. He fumbled with his lantern and turned it on. Nothing happened.

He tried again. Nothing. The air was cold enough to make him shiver. It hadn't exactly been warm before, but now-

A very cold, very solid hand grabbed his wrist. He screamed.

The grip broke, as if startled. Jack staggered to his feet, fumbled with the door, and ran.

He was at the end of the expansive, overrun parking lot before he realized that he had nothing but the underwear he was wearing. He stopped, heart racing, too full of adrenaline to feel cold yet. But logic came soon enough. It was still pouring rain and cold. If he didn't want to freeze to death, he was going to have to go back.

He couldn't make himself go to the stairs no matter how hard he tried, and he spent most of the night huddled near the exit of the lobby, shivering and praying that whatever had just happened didn't repeat itself. He did, however, manage to work up enough courage to rummage through some desks to find a very filthy notepad and a pen that worked, and wrote out a note that read:

" _My name's Jack_

 _I'm sorry for bothering you, but I don't have anywhere else to go. I promise I'll leave in the morning, please don't kill me"_

and put it a ways in front of him. He didn't know if whatever that had been could even read, but it helped him feel a little better.

When daybreak finally broke, he returned to the stairs and hurriedly shoved as much as he could in his backpack.

The note was gone by the time he returned to the lobby. Jack bolted out of there like a bat out of hell.

…

 **A/N: Hiiii! How are y'all? Don't mind me, I'm just adding another project for me to work on in ALL of my spare time. But if you can't write outrageously self-indulgent fanfic to help distract you from the looming obligations of college life, then what can you do? I've wanted to do this AU for a while. I'm excited.**

 **Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated but not required, not sure if the next update will be for this or Checkered but I doubt either will come for a while. I start work again tomorrow and that's always time-consuming. And exhausting. All well, what can ya do, right? Gotta pay for school somehow.**


End file.
